Goodman Games

My group played our first game tonight. 10 of 18 characters survived the Portal funnel. I ran the game as everyone started in Saxon England as humans, and the portal moved while the party was inside. In the dungeon, the demi-humans started to have manifestations of their new forms, but it wasn't until they stepped out of the portal that they became their new race (along with the armor of the elf shifting into mithril). They stepped out of the dungeon into a new world they have never seen--which also means we didn't have to worry about player's knowing anything about the world.

Everyone seemed to have fun watching their pool of characters dwindle, but we did wind up with a strange party in the end. None of the characters who were left had a high enough Intelligence to make a good Wizard, so the party heading in to Level 1 is made up of 1 elf, 2 halflings, 2 clerics, 1 rogue, and 2 warriors. The players are a little nervous about this group composition, and I (as GM) am a little sad about not seeing more corruption chances, but I think we'll make the best of it.

-Berc

Nice way to begin your campaign.

Bercilak wrote:None of the characters who were left had a high enough Intelligence to make a good Wizard, so the party heading in to Level 1 is made up of 1 elf, 2 halflings, 2 clerics, 1 rogue, and 2 warriors. The players are a little nervous about this group composition, and I (as GM) am a little sad about not seeing more corruption chances, but I think we'll make the best of it.

I wouldn't bother, every class has enough fun elements and mechanics to make things interestings. Clerics have deity requests and disapproval.

Cool idea for a starting world. I like the way you limited PC knowledge and integrated demi-humans.

In regards to the wizard pool, did any of the characters have an Int that would make for a "passable" wizard? I have tried to get my players out of the habit of assuming every character has to be optimized for the class. No one wants to play a totally gimpy wizard, but an "okay" wizard with Int 11, 10, even 9 can still be a decent character.

Bercilak wrote:My group played our first game tonight. 10 of 18 characters survived the Portal funnel.

That's a pretty good percentage. I don't think I've ever run an adventure for zeroes where more than half survived.

finarvyn wrote:

Bercilak wrote:My group played our first game tonight. 10 of 18 characters survived the Portal funnel.

That's a pretty good percentage. I don't think I've ever run an adventure for zeroes where more than half survived.

I have.

The first time I ran Portal Under the Stars, only 2 PCs were lost. They did sacrifice a lot of livestock, though.

The second time, no one made it past the third encounter.

I ran a solo dungeon the other night for a friend and let him roll 10 characters. By the end of it, only two were left.

goodmangames wrote:In regards to the wizard pool, did any of the characters have an Int that would make for a "passable" wizard? I have tried to get my players out of the habit of assuming every character has to be optimized for the class. No one wants to play a totally gimpy wizard, but an "okay" wizard with Int 11, 10, even 9 can still be a decent character.

Aside from the demi-humans, whose classes were locked by their occupation roll, we only had one character with a 9 Int, but he was also a Seventh Son with a negative Luck modifier.

I still have an elf to kick around with the corruption rules, I suppose.

Berc

One of my players has a warrior with only a modest strength. He has good luck, though, so that contributes with his chosen weapon. He's clever with the deeds so he does just fine..

When I get a high constitution score, I immediately check to see if I'm smart enough to be a marginal wizard. I don't have enough DCC experience, but in most systems I find that it is actually the wizard's hit points, not spell adjustments for intelligence, that determine effectiveness and survivability.

meinvt wrote:When I get a high constitution score, I immediately check to see if I'm smart enough to be a marginal wizard. I don't have enough DCC experience, but in most systems I find that it is actually the wizard's hit points, not spell adjustments for intelligence, that determine effectiveness and survivability.

This strategy will work well in DCC, since your not limited to a certain number of spells per level. There's a cap to the highest level you can cast, but you can stock up on lower levels spells, and still get decent effects on a high spell roll.